Friday, March 31, 2017

Lynn
Alleva Lilley is an American photographer who in 2011 moved with her family to Amman, Jordan. Over three years she photographed Western women who
married Jordanians of Palestinian descent, a private zoo, Syrian and
Iraqi refugees, bird migration routes, artists, and landscapes. Themes
of displacement, entrapment, and adaptation are reflected in the work. The result a profound and moving bookwork - Tender Mint.

Tender
Mint is scheduled to be published by The Eriskay Connection, Breda,
Netherlands in May 2017 pending a successful fundraising campaign.

Lynn says this about the work: I had never lived in the Middle East before so when I moved with my
family to Amman I knew I wanted to explore this unfamiliar world and
ultimately to make a book. Yet there was concern both on an external
level as the war in Syria had just started and a personal one as my
father was ill back home in the US.Ultimately, over one million
refugees from Syria fled to Jordan joining those who fled the Iraq war.
This violence and tension in the North put tremendous pressure on the
country, yet it remained stable. For three years I photographed
confined places, landscapes, animals and people including Syrian and
Iraqi refugees and Jordanians. I was struck by the paradox of beautiful
places located in military zones such as a bird observatory located near
the border with Israel, the village of Hemma in the north from which
you can see Israel and Syria, and Bethany Beyond the Jordan. The
loss of my father in the US brought an urgency to the work. I wondered
how those living through war and catastrophic loss were coping, maybe
hoping to connect and come to some form of understanding and acceptance
of grief. The more I saw and photographed, the more worlds within worlds
opened up which, strangely, led to an epiphany in a zoo. I was able to
go deeper and look beyond the obvious entrapment of the animals and
into strange, beautiful worlds of animals and their environment. I feel
that many of the images have an other-wordly, fairytale-like quality to
them.It is interesting now to look at the images and see unexpected relationships among them that, together, make a book.

Book production is expensive. To fund the project Lynn has launched a Kickstarter fundraiser, it's worth checking out HERE - there is more about Tender Mint and if you're moved by the images show your support.

The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD, will be held March 30–April 2, 2017 at Pier 94 for
the first time. The newly expanded Show, organized by the Association
of International Photography Art Dealers, will present exceptional
photography from early masters, modern luminaries, and emerging and
established contemporary artists from more than 115 of the world's
leading fine art galleries. An opening night vernissage will be held on
March 29.
The Photography Show will feature galleries from around the world, including the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, and South America. With four new sections – Salon, Gallery, Positions, and Discovery – the Show will offer work from both AIPAD members and new exhibitors, as well as younger galleries, and book dealers and publishers.

Friday, March 24, 2017

‘A photograph brings me so much joy, they’re beautiful objects,’ says Sir Elton John, discussing a remarkable collection of 25 works by some of the world’s greatest photographers, to be offered at Christie’s in New York on 6 April 2017. Proceeds from the sale of these works will benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF),
an international non-profit organisation founded by the celebrated
recording artist 25 years ago with the mission of ending the AIDS
epidemic.
Commemorating the foundation’s 25th year, this special auction holds
great personal significance for the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning star.
‘It’s my 70th birthday, and the 50th anniversary of my songwriting
partnership with Bernie Taupin,’ he explains.

Artists and estates that have donated to the auction include
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Misrach and Cindy Sherman. ‘They’ve been
amazingly generous,’ Sir Elton continues, acknowledging the consistent
support his foundation has received from the creative industries.
Filmed in his LA home, this interview offers a glimpse of some of the
works in Sir Elton’s own collection, which is hailed as one of the
greatest private collections in the world. He reveals it has been
largely acquired while on tour and from galleries across the world. ‘You
always find something different; that’s what I love about photography,’
he says. The exhibition Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection is on show at Tate Modern in London until 21 May.

About Me

My pictures explore the strange anthropology of cities. The unusual and overlooked in the human landscape.
I am asking the viewer to question the idea that photographs as documents are complete representations of subject.
I'm interested in the universality of life and the idea of parallel lives - when one thing is happening here, something else is happening over there. The democracy of non-places fascinates me, in the knowledge that inevitably nothing is as it seems.
I work and live between Auckland and Paris.
http://harveybenge.com/
email:harvey.benge@xtra.co.nz